Inkle’s new Arthurian strategy game Pendragon is a fascinating beast. It owes some of its strategic flavor to the simple rules of chess, but its special sauce comes in the form of procedurally-told tales, ones that cast players as various heroes in the final days of classic Arthurian legend.
One particularly neat part of Pendragon’s design history is that it began life as a side project by Inkle designer and programmer Tom Kail, one that “could have been sold as a board game” if Jon Ingold and his colleagues hadn’t seen something special in the foundation.
Ingold and Kail took some time on the GDC Twitch channel today to discuss the origins of Pendragon, and what you can learn about taking your home-brewed side projects and turning them into full-fledged games. You can also learn how the narrative-focused company approached strategy design, and why they think Arthurian legend has particular resonance in 2020.
GDC’s conversation with Ingold and Kail can be seen in its entirety in the video above. Be sure to follow the GDC Twitch channel for more developer interviews!
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